A ROW has broken out over the ownership of an arson-hit Woodford Green nightclub featured on reality TV “soap” The Only Way is Essex.

Deuce’s Bar and Lounge, in Chigwell Road, which it is claimed in the ITV2 show is owned by the show’s love-rat Mark Wright, was hit in a suspected arson attack in the early hours of Friday.

Five fire engines were called to a blaze at the bar at around 4.43am and police investigating say the blaze is being treated as suspicious.

But the Recorder can reveal the venue, the launch for which was screened on Sunday, does not belong to him.

An ITV2 spokesman admitted this week neither Wright nor his friend Jack Tweed – Jade Goody’s widower – were the owners: “Although there are widespread media reports that Mark and Jack Tweed own this bar, they don’t,” a statement said.

Redbridge Council’s licensing department confirmed the owners of the license were pub chain Punch Taverns.

A spokesman for Punch Taverns said this week: “We have no formal business relationship with Mark Wright or Jack Tweed and it is inaccurate to report that the bar is under their ownership.”

Wright’s Twitter account ahead of the night painted a different picture, saying: “WOW so many messages from people coming to my bar launch this Friday!!!!!!!”

When the Recorder approached him over the ownership of the bar, he declined to comment.

Police say they are also investigating a separate incident at the bar the previous night in which an “accelerant” substance was thrown through a rear window of the bar.

Since the show hit screens three weeks ago, social networking sites have been inundated with angry comments from people from Essex saying it did not accurately portray them, and was staged.

The final episode is set to hit screens this Sunday.